The first day of DreamHack Open took place in Austin, Texas and kicked off Friday, with eight teams battling it out in the group stage that featured six best-of-ones and four best-of-threes. While HellRaisers went the distance, G2 Esports had a spectacular fall from grace. Here's how Day 1 played out.
HellRaisers went head-to-head against Luminosity in the opening series on Overpass. The Brazilians of Luminosity took the first three rounds, but HellRaisers rallied back on defense to win three of its own. HellRaisers never gave Luminosity a chance to play its game, taking the first half up 10-5. Luminosity struggled in the second half and were only able to pick up three rounds as HellRaisers took the opener 16-8.
The second match between Immortals and Team Liquid featured a clash on Inferno as Immortals took the pistol round to start things off. Immortals built on this lead with an overall 6-0 start before Liquid won in Round 7 to make things 6-1. Liquid managed to break the silence for a few rounds, but it was all Immortals to finish up the half up 10-5. Immortals started strong with a pistol round win in the second half, but Liquid stopped Immortals from running away to come back and make it 12-10. However, Liquid was unable to bring it all the way back as Immortals closed Inferno with a 16-11 win.
The Swedes of Heroic kicked off their series against the CIS-based team Gambit on Train, which ended in a triple overtime thriller. Heroic started the game with a 3-0 start thanks to its high-powered offense, but Gambit still made a mark early. The Swedish offense kept the lead until Gambit wrecked the Danes in a crucial round to come back up 8-7 at the half. Heroic won the second pistol, but it was all Gambit early in the second half, winning six in a row to take a 14-8 lead. However, Heroic slowly started to bring back the match in a highly contested late second half with the Danes forcing overtime. After three back-to-back sets of overtime, Gambit managed to close out the tough battle on Train with a 25-23 win.
Cloud9 then went head-to-head with G2 Esports, the favorite to win DreamHack Austin. The North Americans proved to be formidable opponents; G2 started on the defense on Cache by taking a massive 6-0 lead to begin the series, but Cloud9 finally got the economy stable enough to come back to tie the game at 7-7. Kenny "kennyS" Schrub showed up in the last round of the half with a triple kill for the 8-7 lead. C9's strong start on the offense in the second half gave it the lead with three rounds won, but G2 rallied back to trade rounds. Cloud9 stabilized and remained in the lead throughout the second half, eventually closing out Cache with a 16-10 win. G2 will now face Liquid in an elimination match.
Gambit claimed to be the first team through the playoffs at Dreamhack Austin after defeating HellRaisers in a best-of-one. The match began with Gambit taking the early lead. Although both teams battled for the lead early on, HellRaisers came out on top 5-4. Gambit refused to let HellRaisers take the first half as the CIS-based team won six in a row for the 10-5 lead. HellRaisers' second half performance was dismal and it only won two rounds before Gambit locked down Nuke 16-7.
Cloud9 played in the winners match after defeating G2 to take on Immortals on Inferno. The South vs. North American battle tilted towards Cloud9 in the early stages of the first half with a 5-2 lead. However, Immortals won crucial rounds to take the lead before Cloud9 continued to make some noise in the later stages of the first half. The North Americans still ended up falling short in the first half, with Immortals taking an 8-7 lead. Cloud9 were countered in every way during the second half as well, giving up eight rounds for a 16-7 loss as Immortals secured their playoff spot.